Life is in Full Bloom

Today is the day to submit our entries for round number two of MFT Idol. The theme this week is The Masquerade--we were to use the masking technique in our project. I've never done much masking but I knew how it worked. I think I caught up on this card! The entire project is a gift basket for a gardener--or a gardener wannabe. I need a nice gift for a special occasion and, what with Spring newly arrived, I thought this would be the perfect thing! Included in the gift basket are: a rosemary plant and pot, a seed starting tray, an assortment of flower and vegetable seeds, gardening gloves, a trowel, some gardener's hand soap, some hand lotion, and a can of Trail Mix. A good starter kit!

My base card is Whisper White with layers of Chocolate Chip and Tempting Turquoise. The next elements are, at the top, Chocolate Chip and Summer sun, cut/embossed with circle Nestabilities dies and across the bottom, Chocolate Chip and DP from a DCWV Mat Stack called Garden Party. The focal image was stamped on Gina K. Pure Luxury 80 lb paper with Memento Tuxedo Black and is almost entirely masked. I used three MFT stamp sets for this scene. In the forefront are the bunny and the watering can, next is That Girl and the plant in her hands, then the wheelbarrow and bird, all from the set Can Ya Dig It? The "trees" are at the back and are from the set called Branch Out and the leaves are from Tea With Flopsey. Everything, except That Girl's dress and hat, are colored with Copic markers (see below for colors). I'm including a closeup of the focal image. The dress and hat are paper pieced with paper from the Garden Party Mat Stack and is cut out around the bunny--not an easy feat! The hat was stamped twice and one cut out, has flower brads for the band, and is up on foam squares. The trowel was stamped twice, one cut out, and it's up on foam squares. Little butterflies were punched out and attached with Crystal Effects. The sun was punched with a starburst punch from Summer Sun card stock and has a 1/2" punched circle up on foam square for it's center. Instead of my usual ribbon, I decided a garden theme called for raffia. So it's tied around the card and has a little dragonfly charm dangling from the bow. This dragonfly started life as a silver dragonfly but I colored it with Copic markers to get the antique brass effect. Prima flowers (looks kinda like a sunflower in the center, doesn't it?) were attached with an antique brass brad, and has leaves punched with a Martha Stewart punch. A matching brad balances the upper right corner. The sentiment is from Can Ya Dig It? and was stamped on Whisper White with Chocolate Chip, cut/embossed with a Spellbinders tag die, and is up on foam squares. That's it for the card. Whew! Very labor intensive and time consuming but it was fun!

Some of the items in the basket have tags. None of these images were masked, but I think they complement the card and support the overall gardening theme. The rosemary pot, the gardener's hand soap, the hand lotion, the vegetable seeds, the flower seeds, and the trail mix all have a Tempting Turquoise band and a tag tied on with raffia. I used the Rosemary and Chamomile stamps for these. These images were also colored with Copic markers and cut/embossed with Petite Oval Nestabilities dies. The basket handle and both groups of seed packets have a gardening quote attached as well, printed on GP cardstock with black printer ink. The one on the basket handle was cut/embossed with a Petite Oval Nestabilities die, matted on Summer Sun and Tempting Turquoise, and has a Prima flower and brad accent.

Thanks for dropping by! And don't forget to head over to the MFT Forum tonight at 10pm and vote for your favorite entry--hopefully me! You should see the poll for week two close to the top of the page. You can vote for more than one entry, but you can only vote once. The poll is open until 10pm tomorrow night. What do you think? Will I make the cut this time?

~Recipe~ Stamps: Can Ya Dig It?, Branch Out, Tea With Flopsey, Rosemary and Chamomile (MFT) Paper: Whisper White, Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise (SU!); Garden Party Mat Stack (DCWV); Gina K Pure Luxury 80 lb paper
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Chocolate Chip (SU!); black printer ink
Accessories: Cuttlebug/Nestabilities dies/Spellbinders tag die; 3M foam squares, raffia, flower brads, charm, antique brass brads (craft store); large decorative brads, butterfly punch (The Paper Studio); starburst punch, leafy punch (Martha Stewart); 1/2" circle punch (EK Success); Copic markers